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Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has expressed concern over the failure of the international community to impose new sanctions while Iran is racing toward nuclear weapons. However, China declares she is still opposed, Russia may reconsider and the U.S. says it may take months before the UN Security Council takes action. Barring unforeseen circumstances in Iran, David Essing sees Israel waiting for the diplomatic effort to run its course before deciding what if anything she should do. Against this background, Israeli civilians are being reissued with gas masks.

NATO forces waging the current campaign are discovering that Taliban forces in the Marjah region of Afghanistan are copying the Hamas tactics against the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza. The Islamist guerillas in Marjah are also exploiting innocent civilians as ' human shields' with some of them being killed and wounded in the cross-fire. U.S. Brig. Gen. Nicholson has been quoted as saying that despite precautions such casualties are inevitable. Ironically, Judge Richard Goldstone who accused the Israel Defense Forces of being guilty of war crimes and possibly 'crimes against humanity' in Gaza has said that the IDF should 'follow the example of the U.S. Forces fighting in Iraq and elsewhere. David Essing urges Judge Goldstone to 'join the dots' between the NATO warfare in Afghanistan and the IDF's 'Cast Lead' operation into Gaza to suppress the the rocketing of Israeli civilians.

Who were the ten men and one woman who arrived discreetly at Dubai airport, tracked down Hamas kingpin Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, assassinated him in his hotel room and then departed all within nineteen hours. The fact that six of them traveled on fraudulent passports in the names of six British citizens now living in Israel pointed to the Mossad Secret Service known for its daring operations in the past. At Dubai's request, Interpol has issued warrants for the eleven suspects while British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has ordered a 'full investigation' after the summoning of the Israeli ambassador for an explanation at the Foreign Office. Israel is staying mum although quiet contacts will likely calm the diplomatic storm.

By enriching uranium from 3% to 20%, Iran appears to have startled most of the international community into finally believing that her ultimate goal is to acquire nuclear weapons. However China, which can cast a veto in the UN Security Council against stiffer sanctions, is still holding out. Amid the mounting tension, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will be flying to Moscow to discuss the situation with Russian leaders, while U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen flies to Israel. Meanwhile Brig.Gen.(res.) Uzi Eilam, a former top Israeli nuclear official, has contended that although Iran's move was dramatic, the Iranians apparently still do not have the required capability to build an atomic bomb.

The U.S. announcement of a $6 billion arms sale to Taiwan could not have come at a worse time for President Barack Obama's attempt to rally UN Security Council backing for new sanctions against Iran. A former senior Israeli official in Washington says chances are now slimmer than ever of getting China's crucial support. Meanwhile, the U.S. is beefing up the missile defenses of four Gulf states as Iran launches a missile which could potentially reach America's eastern seaboard. Analyst David Essing assesses this and other developments over the past seven days.

In early February, the Goldstone Report that accused Israel of perpetrating war crimes in Gaza will again make headlines. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is expected to address the question of Israeli and Palestinian compliance with the Goldstone demand for independent inquiries into the IDF's Cast Lead Operation to suppress the eight years of Palestinian rocketing of Israeli civilians. The Israeli government is now considering, what if any, investigation to set up after refusing to cooperate with the probe that was mandated by the UN's Council of Human Rights to investigate Israel's 'war crimes'.

Defense Minister Ehud's Barak's official visit to Turkey has been saved by the eleventh hour apology of Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon. Barak will be able to examine what can be salvaged from the relations after Ayalon tried to humiliate Turkish Ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol while delivering a protest over Turkey's verbal attacks on Israel and the screening of anti- Semitic programs on Turkish TV. The Barak visit will now have added importance at a time that relations between Jerusalem and Ankara have hit an all time low. On the other hand, none other than the Egyptian newspaper Al-Aharam credits Mossad chief Meir Dagan with stalling Iran's nuclear weapons project.

Palestinian terrorists in Gaza escalated their rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli civilians this week - the Israeli response came within hours with pin-point air strikes. On Gaza's southern border, Egyptian security forces also repulsed Palestinians rioters who stormed the border area in protest over Egypt's blocking of the arms smuggling tunnels. In another milestone, Israel has uncovered 'Iron Dome', a state-of-the art missile defense system designed to intercept Kassam rockets fired at Israeli population centers from Gaza. Analyst David Essing also has some thoughts on the outcome of the failed Al-Qaeda attempt to blow up an American airliner and the reaction of U.S. President Barack Obama.

Israel has entered 2010 facing with a wide range of both dangers and prospects in the security and foreign affairs arena. The Iranian regime is now battling for its political survival at home against a mounting campaign for democratic reform while time has apparently run out for its clandestine nuclear weapons project. At year's end, the international reach of Islamist terrorism struck again at Schiphol Airport and at a CIA base in Afghanistan, while a divided Palestinian camp remained split over terrorism or negotiations. Analyst David Essing assesses the situation from an Israeli perspective.

Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak has criticized the Free World for not lending sufficient support for Iranian dissidents in their confrontation with their country's dictatorial regime. In a closed door briefing to the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee, Barak assessed current developments against the Iranian government's drive to acquire nuclear weapons and Analyst David Essing says these issues are intertwined from Israel's perspective. The Defense Minister also sized up other threats to the Jewish state such as failing to reach an agreement on separation from the West Bank Palestinians.

It took Israeli security forces just over twenty-four hours to track down and kill three Palestinian terrorists who murdered Israeli settler Meir Avshalom Hai on the West Bank Thursday night. Acting on intelligence from the Shabak Secret Service, two IDF units located the terrorists holed up in three separate buildings in the town of Nablus. They were called upon to surrender and when they refused, the soldiers stormed the buildings. One of the three, was discovered in a secret hiding place with two M-16 automatic rifles and ammunition. Analyst David Essing assesses the latest developments that come against the backdrop of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange for hundreds of Palestinian terrorists and some rare comments made by Shabak chief Yuval Diskin.

After months of fruitless
dialogue, this week's expose by the London Times about an Iranian
nuclear 'trigger' and the launching of a new long range Iranian
missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead indicated that Iran may
be closer to developing a nuclear weapon than previously suspected.
Analyst David Essing assesses these latest developments from the
Israeli perspective and what Israelis think about U.S. President Barack
Obama and their own country's leadership at this crucial time.

This week, Israel officially revealed that Iran now has sufficient enriched uranium for proceeding with the production of at least one atomic bomb. The disclosure came from Brig.Gen. Yossi Bidatz, the commander of the research department in the IDF Intelligence Branch. However, the intelligence officer told the Knesset Foreign affairs & Defense Committee there is still no evidence the Iranian regime has defied the international community and taken the decision to go nuclear. At the same time, the Iranians have developed missiles capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. Also addressing the closed door hearing, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stated: ' Israel's paramount security concern is to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons'. Analyst David Essing assesses some of the key issues in Israel over the past seven days.

Israeli settlers in Judea & Samaria (West Bank) are defying the Israeli government's ten month housing freeze. In several incidents, the residents have prevented housing inspectors from entering their communities to serve the building freeze orders. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has tried to allay the settlers' fury by stressing that Israeli construction will be resumed after the ten month 'suspension' and that 3,000 current housing units will be completed. IsraCast assessment: Israel is now bracing for a showdown between settlers and their former champion, right-wing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. In other developments this week, are there new manifestations of the 'clash of civilizations' in Europe and even in the Middle East?

At week's end, speculation again swirled around the possibility that a German mediator may be closing a long awaited prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas - captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in return for hundreds of Palestinian terrorists. Meanwhile, the Israeli decision to build 900 housing units in the Jerusalem neighborhood Gilo, after Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu agreed to U.S. President Barack Obama's demand for a settlement freeze on the West Bank, is a new source of friction. But while these events were dominating the headlines, Iran for the umpteenth time, declared it would not concede on enriching uranium. Obama warned of 'consequences'. Meanwhile it was reported that while Israeli pilots were to undergo a refresher course to cope with the mental stress in attacking long range targets.

The Iranian nuclear threat was obviously high on the agenda of US President Barack Obama and Israel's Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu when they met in the White House this week. So far, nothing has leaked about what they discussed. However according to the respected Al-Hayat newspaper, published in London, 'informed sources' have said Netanyahu told Sarkozy that Israel did not rule out a military strike against Iran. The French leader stressed the need of pursuing with the current diplomatic effort that has failed to dissuade to halt its uranium enrichment program. Meanwhile, in the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee, the IDF Chief Of Staff, Gen. Ashkenazi made some telling remarks that illuminate the nuclear double bind that confronts Israel at this juncture.

Almost daily this week, there were dramatic developments in Israel's counter-terror campaign. At the center, what Israeli experts call the 'Iranian octopus' of terrorist activities - the Israeli seizure at sea of an innocent- looking merchant ship, the Francop, with a cargo of hundreds tons of weapons and explosives plying its course to Syria and then on to Hezballah in south Lebanon. Secondly, the Palestinians test launched a rocket with a sixty kilometer range that could hit the Tel Aviv metropolitan area of the Jewish state. This did not make any impression in the UN General Assembly. There, delegates of the 118 nations of the pro- Arab majority, took the podium to vilify the Jewish state for defending her citizens against Iranian sponsored terrorism. This time they had a new rallying point - what is viewed in Israel as the infamous Goldstone report that alleged that Israel had committed war crimes during the Cast Lead operation to halt eight years of rocketing of Israeli civilians from Gaza. IsraCast joins the dots of the big picture.

Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his cabinet are now considering how to react to the decision by the UN Human Rights Council to adopt the Goldstone Report that accuses the israel Defense Forces of alleged war crimes during its 'Cast-Lead' operation into Gaza to halt eight years of Palestinian rocketing. IsraCast Assessment: Israel likely to consider independent inquiry in order to cope with what appears to be an escalated diplomatic war against the Jewish state by the pro- Arab bloc at the UN.

British Army Colonel (ret) Richard Kemp knows a thing or two about fighting a guerrilla war; Kemp has served as commander of the British contingent to the NATO force now fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. In a lecture to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs on June 18th, Colonel Kemp compared the conduct of the IDF during the Cast Lead Operation in Gaza with that of the British and American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. His conclusion: 'The Israel Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare'. Nonetheless, the pro-Palestinian Human Rights Council of the UN has published an enquiry, based mainly on Palestinian allegations and chaired by Judge Richard Goldstone, that alleges the IDF perpetrated war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu first caught the eye of the Israeli public when he served as an eloquent Ambassador to the U.N. He has now returned to the General Assembly to make a masterful defense of the Jewish state's struggle for survival, not only in the Middle East, but also in UN bodies that single her for 'special treatment'.